A bustle of activity surrounded Ash, Brock, and Misty as they walked into the League camp on that sunny day. It was a city of tents, some matching and uniform, the dark green tents from the League personel and trainers, and others mismatched and chaotic, from the trainers that had been drafted. People and pokémon were scurrying about, shouting and carrying things. Pokémon crisscrossed in the air above them, sharing the space with a helicopter coming in for a landing and two airships circling overhead.
"Surprised we were able to bring in flying hardware so quickly," Misty commented, shading her eyes from the sun as she looked up. "I've never seen a military airship in action before."
"Those are commercial airships, not military ones," Brock said, also looking up. "It's the propellers, military airships try to stick entirely to jets. They were probably commandeered to act as support."
"What will they do?" Ash asked.
"They'll probably act as carriers for our aerial forces," Brock explained. "And as mobile command posts. They can't get too close to the fighting; they don't have any protection from even basic anti-air."
"Hmm…. I wonder what it's going to be like to fly from there…." Ash rubbed his chin.
No! You are not jumping off one of those flying death traps, with or without Pidgeot! Pikachu screamed from Ash's shoulder.
"You are not going to be part of the air group," Misty said. "If they don't put you somewhere safe, like helping with evacuations, then I'm going to have words and maybe hands with whoever's in charge."
"Spoilsport," Ash said, crossing his arms and pouting. He glanced over at Brock. The former gym leader's face was grim and he was looking at both Ash and Misty.
Brock looked at his companions, at the children he travelled with as they all walked into the war camp. He looked around at the people already there, noting their ages.
Cresselia had some mercy for them that day; most of the trainers who weren't wearing League uniforms were closer to Brock's own age instead of Misty's or Ho-oh forbid, Aaron's.
Still, the glimpse of a twelve-year-old kid running around like it was a summer camp or another kid trying to hide in the shadow of some tent so that they could bawl their eyes out was enough to break Brock's heart.
How could things be so bad that this was what they were reduced to, Brock asked himself. They were forcing children into war. And, unlike everything that had happened to Aaron, this was the League's decision to send them in, not Team Rocket forcing the children to be involved.
Brock imagined trying to send his siblings into the looming disaster and couldn't, not even if they all had their own hand reared onixes and had proven that they knew how to handle real battles.
Brock had never understood why people pushed to raise the age limit required to become a pokémon trainer. Most pokémon were safe to handle and even by age ten, children could safely venture into the wilds if they were accompanied by their own pokémon.
But now, as Brock looked at Aaron and Misty walking into army camp, he understood all too well.
The trio was directed to one of several large tents for registration and for their preliminary unit assignments. There was a line leading to a long table set up at the end of the tent and rows of chairs occupied by waiting trainers along the sides.
It took twenty minutes to reach the head of the line. They gave their trainer's license numbers, team details, Ash showed his badges, and Misty showed her gym identification.
"Take a seat, we'll get back to you in a few minutes," the secretary who was handling their paperwork, a pretty white-haired man, told them.
"Why didn't you give your gym identification?" Misty asked Brock as they all sat down.
"I didn't take any with me," Brock told her. "It's not like it matters. I didn't intend to be caught up in League business. I don't even know if I'm part of the Pewter Gym anymore."
"You should have probably gotten all that squared away before you left," Misty told him. "You never know what kind of trouble it could get you into."
"Nah, I'll be fine," Brock waved away her concerns. Misty just rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and sat back.
They sat for ten minutes that stretched into half an hour of waiting while even the trainers who had reported in after them were given their assignments. Ash passed the time by petting a napping Pikachu while Brock also grabbed a quick snooze. Misty was fidgeting, tapping her foot, and glaring at the front desk.
"What's taking them so long?" She hissed. "They should have at least processed your information already, Aaron."
"Maybe they forgot about us?" Ash shrugged.
"I guess I'll have to remind them about us then," Misty growled, one of her eyebrows twitching.
"Give them five more minutes," Brock muttered, still half asleep.
Misty grumbled but didn't make a fuss. About three minutes later a collection of League trainers strode into the tent and went up to the front desk. There was some hushed, heated discussion, and then they strode over to where Ash, Brock, and Misty were sitting.
"Brock of the Pewter City Gym?" One of the League personnel asked, a woman wearing glasses, her brown hair kept in a ponytail behind her.
"Yes," Brock responded, looking up.
"We're ready to formally transfer command to you." The woman told him.
"Wait, what?" Brock shot out of his seat.
"I said we're ready to formally transfer com-"
""There's got to be some mistake-"
"There's no mistake," the woman said. "As the senior gym trainer and heir of the Pewter City Gym, you are the highest ranked personnel at the scene. League regulations stipulate that you should be given command of this operation unless otherwise specified by the Assembly, one of the Elite Four, or someone acting with the authority of the Elite Four."
"Gym heir and senior gym trainer- Flint, what have you done now?"
"What were you thinking?" Brock glared at the videophone screen. "Seriously, what in Groudon's name were you thinking?"
"I-" Flint, who was taking the video call from his office in his gym, began, but Brock kept right on going.
"I was done with the gym," Brock said. "Finished, gone, kaputs, donezo. I wanted nothing more to do with the gym. If I never thought about the gym again, I would've been happy…. Okay, if I never thought about the gym again except for the pokémon there I would have been happy. But, according to the League, I'm still an official member of the Pewter City Gym with all that entails. Can you explain that one to me, Flint?"
"I was trying to- It was just- " Flint floundered. "I- It gave me a way to give you a salary."
"What?"
"You didn't wonder about where that money was coming from?" Flint fixed Brock with a look that made Brock feel like a kid again. "Brock, have you been neglecting to monitor your bank accounts?"
"Yes," Brock admitted, fighting the urge to fidget. He hadn't felt the need to check on his accounts while travelling. The only thing he had purchased since setting out was food and he had always been a thrifty shopper. His savings from his time as gym leader, meager as they may be, were more than enough to cover that expense. Going over bank statements and keeping an eye on his accounts had been another responsibility that he had jettisoned when he left the gym.
Brock shook his head to clear his thoughts and then glared at Flint again.
"But that's beside the point," Brock continued. "Thanks to you I'm being put in charge of the operation to retake Saffron City."
"Why though? That's the job of the Elite Four or a gym leader," Flint protested. "Not a gym trainer."
"None of them are available," Brock snapped. "Bruno and Agatha are off in the mountains tracking down some leads on Team Rocket. There's no way to contact them. Lance is in some bunker in Johto finishing up negotiations and there's no way to contact him either thanks to the security Johto insisted on. And Lorelei was called away to the Orange Islands to help the situation down there."
"Those winter storms, right," Flint muttered. "What about the other gym leaders? This should be Sabrina's job or Koga's job. Or even Surge, if he can get up there quick enough."
"There's been no word from Sabrina," Brock replied letting his face fall into his hands. "And the others are securing their own cities before they do anything else. They don't want what happened to Saffron to happen to them."
"Maybe you can delay until one of them can take over?" Flint suggested.
"No, Saffron City can't afford any delays," Brock said. "Even I know that much. It's just…. I can raise a strong pokémon. And I can devise plans if I have help. But I'm no good at strategy and tactics, not really. But they're putting me in command all the same."
Flint looked down.
"Once again, because of me you're being forced to take on responsibility that you shouldn't have to shoulder," he told his son. "I can't seem to do anything without it hurting you in the end."
"No, you can't even compare this with dumping the gym and my siblings in my lap," Brock said, his voice high and strained. "This isn't even in the same solar system as that. I just wish you had told me about what you did."
"But-"
"For once you were honestly trying to help me," Brock said, his head resting in his hands. "It backfired. That's better than making me pick up your responsibilities."
"True. But you're still burdened because of what I did." Flint said, looking down at his desk.
"I can forgive you for this," Brock said, looking up. "It's just…. I'd rather have been under the command of the people who used to be in charge. But, because I've got strong pokémon, they're putting me in charge. It's messed up. I'm going to mess up. People are gonna get killed because of me. Why do this?"
"They don't really have any means to enforce authority over you," Flint sighed. "If the strongest trainers in the army mutinied, what recourse would they have? So, you have to include them in your chain of command and the stronger they are the higher up they have to be."
"And because I'm the strongest trainer here, I'm put in the highest position," Brock groaned. "I can't do this."
"Brock, you'll do fine. You're willing to admit that you're lacking when it comes to strategy and tactics. That's good, you know to leave it to others." Flint explained in a gentle voice. "The officials who were in charge before? If you think that they're better at it than you, then just listen to them."
"I guess that's what I'll do," Brock said, rubbing at his face. "If it all goes wrong though, it's still going to be my fault."
"Be safe," Flint said. "Take care of yourself. Your siblings send their love."
"Tell them I love them too," Brock said. "Goodbye."
Ash walked through the grass streets of the tent city with Pikachu perched on his shoulder. In his hand he held a sheet of paper that listed where he was to bunk and which unit he was with.
He had been assigned to the Search and Rescue Unit. According to the piece of paper, his primary duties would be finding and evacuating civilians. His secondary duties would consist of evacuating wounded members of the League force.
Misty had looked relieved when she had found out his assignment before she went off to meet up with her assigned unit. She had also told Ash that she would do her best to help Brock with the turmoil he found himself in.
Ash didn't get why those two were so concerned about Brock being put in charge. They were both bossypants. Now Brock had a whole army to boss around and Ash was sure that he'd let Misty help.
Ash arrived at the lot of land where his unit was staying. A hodgepodge collection of tents was waiting for him, almost none of them military. He walked over to the tent that the map on the backside of the paper said belonged to his commander.
Ash raised his hand to knock on the pale-brown tent flap and then realized how ridiculous he was being. He was about to go in when he heard some strange noises coming from within.
"Ummm…." Ash called out. "Excuse me? I need to talk to-" He looked back at the paper for his commander's name. "-Jared."
The noises ceased and then Ash heard the rustle of clothing. He also caught some muttering.
"Cockblocking little- Who decided I should have to- One second!" The last part was loud and clear.
The tent flap opened and Ash saw the Jared he had raced against at the Laramie ranch on the other side, his clothing disheveled. Behind him a blonde young man was hastily putting on a shirt.
"Wait, I know you," Jared said, looking at Ash. "You were that kid on a pidgeot from the Fuchsia Free For All. The one who got into a fight with that mankey who caused an avalanche. Aaron, right?"
"It was a primeape," Ash corrected. "You're the guy who won, right?"
"First place," Jared said proudly, pointing both his thumbs at himself and then gave Ash a crooked grin. "But right now, it seems like the second-place prize could've come in handy."
"What was it again?"
"Armor," Jared said, deflating a little. "So, what do you need me for?"
"According to this, you're my boss," Ash said, handing Jared his orders.
"Yeah," Jared said after skimming the document. He looked at Ash again and then back at the paper. "You are way too young to be caught up in this, kid."
"No, I'm not! I can fight!" Ash protested. "I've done it before! Besides you're what, fourteen?"
"I'm sixteen now, fifteen when I met you. And I don't care if you've been in a scuffle or two before, a twelve-year-old shouldn't be sent into a warzone," Jared said, giving Ash a stern look. "But we since we're stuck with this, I need you to answer a few questions." He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "First, have you ever ridden your pidgeot in a battle?" He asked, reading off the sheet.
"No," Ash shook his head.
"Do you have any riding armor?"
"No."
"Do you have any armor?"
"No."
"Have you taken any League accredited tactical courses?"
"No."
"Have you taken any squad courses?"
"No."
"Can you use a hand-to-hand weapon?"
"No."
"Have you had any experience with a crossbow and are you in possession of one currently?"
"No and no."
"Have you had any experience with firearms and are you in possession of one currently?"
"No."
As Ash continued to answer negatively to all the questions, Jared looked more and more relieved. When they were finished, Jared was actually smiling.
"Well, I'll pass this on to the unit commander and see what he thinks," Jared said, clasping his hands together.
"They're not going to let me fight, are they?" Ash said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
Thank goodness, Pikachu said.
"Not if I have anything to say about it. I can be a piece of shit at times, but I'm not going to let a twelve-year-old fight," Jared said. "This way. Besides, this is the Search and Rescue unit. We're not supposed to be fighting in the first place."
"Well, what if we need protection?" Ash said as he followed behind the older boy. "And hey! You're barely older than me! Why do you get to fight?"
"I'm not supposed to be fighting either," Jared told Ash. "But push comes to shove, I'll be the one keeping everyone I'm in charge of safe. In this unit, it's only my commander and her people who are supposed to fight."
"I can fight," Ash said, crossing his arms. "I've had to fight Team Rocket before when they were trying to kill me."
"They what-? Nevermind, I don't want to know. If that's true, then it's even more reason you shouldn't be here." Jared rubbed his forehead and sighed. "This was supposed to be easy," he muttered, mostly to himself. "I was going to hook up with some trainers and then later I was going to rescue a cute guy from clutches of Team Rocket…. Why are they putting me in charge of keeping kids alive?"
Ash just shrugged.
"Well, here we are," Jared said, coming to a stop by a patch of grass between two tents. "This is where you'll be staying. You've got a tent, right? The spare ones that the League provides are crap."
"Yes," Ash said, taking off his backpack.
"Good, good, good," Jared said. "Get to know the neighbors. Depending on how you're sorted, they might be the ones you'll be working when we go to Saffron."
Jared left and Ash started setting up his tent. Pikachu watched from the other edge of the grass lane between the groups of tents.
"Hey little guy, are you lost?" A girl's voice said. "Do you need help finding your trainer? Wait…. I recognize you…."
Hey, Ash, guess who stopped by, Pikachu called out.
Ash turned around and saw Leaf crouching down by Pikachu, petting the top of the pokémon's head.
"Aaron!" She exclaimed, standing up and rushing over with her arms out.
"Leaf!" Ash said, returning her hug. "You're here too?"
"I've got the badges," She said, letting him go. "You got the Soul Badge I take it?"
"Yeah!" Ash nodded. "You and Gary were right! It was crazy!"
Leaf's face fell at the mention of Gary's name.
"Oh yeah," Ash went on. "Gary! Do you know if he's here too? Or was he too far away to get called in?"
Leaf looked down at the ground.
"Gary- Gary was in Saffron City when it was taken over," she said, clenching her fists at her sides. "Before I came here, I checked the visitor list of every pokémon center in and around Saffron City. He had checked into the Saffron City Central Pokémon center the day Team Rocket attacked."
Ash looked at her, wide eyed and frozen in place. At first, for an instant or an eternity, he didn't feel anything, think anything, know anything. And then icy fear mixed with molten anger in his veins as he realized that his friend had fallen into the clutches of Team Rocket.
"No…" Ash growled.
"I'm sorry," Leaf shook her head. "I've been looking for him here and I haven't seen him. And he hasn't checked into any other pokémon centers."
"No! He got out!" Ash yelled. "He had to!"
"Aaron, he didn't get out!" Leaf shouted back, meeting his gaze, her eyes hard and flashing. "He's in Saffron!"
Ash looked down and clenched his own fists.
"He can't be. He just can't be." Ash said, almost pleading. Pikachu nuzzled the side of his leg, not saying anything. "Is there anywhere else he can be?"
"He might be in the wilds," Leaf said. "But I don't think he is."
Ash took a deep breath trying to get himself under control. He kept taking deep breaths until he felt like he could control himself.
"Fine," Ash said eventually, raising his head. "Then I guess we're going to have to rescue him."
"That's the plan," Leaf said with a wan smile. "I mean, I'm in the Search and Rescue Unit anyway-"
"Me too!"
"It's literally our job to save him, then," Leaf went on. She then looked over at his tent. "Oh, of course you're in the unit, you're my neighbor."
Perfect, Pikachu piped up. I'll at least have one human to fawn over my adorableness tonight.
"Pikachu seems happy about that," Ash said diplomatically.
"Oh, you're just the cutest," Leaf cooed, crouching down to pet the electric-type again. "It's nice to see you again too."
Yeessss…. Praise me, human….. Pikachu purred, while leaning into her touch.
Ash finished setting up his tent while Leaf pet Pikachu. Leaf stood back up when Ash was done with his work.
"They give you the grand tour yet?" Leaf asked Ash. "Show you where everything is?"
"No, they just told me to come here," Ash replied.
"Then I guess I'll do it," Leaf said. "Follow me!"
"Brock!" Misty cried out, waving as she stood at the forefront of a group of trainers headed for command tents. "Brock! Look who I found!"
Brock, who had also been heading for the command tents, turned at the sound of his name and then he grinned when he saw who was with Misty.
"You found a gaggle of gym brats!" Brock exclaimed. "If it isn't Visquez, Cindy, Kayden, and-" Brock smirked "Nidia"
"You damn well know my name," a spectacled brown-haired young woman dressed in a blue long coat and white pants growled.
"Oh, what was that, Nanda?"
"It's Amanda you jerk," the young woman growled.
"Ha!" The trainer that Brock had addressed as Visquez laughed. She was a muscular young woman with dark skin, white hair, blue eyes and was wearing a pale green crop topped military-esque outfit. "Are you always going to get riled up when he does that to you?"
"He just does it to be an ass," Amanda hissed and then took a deep breath.
"You're the one who thinks I can't remember shit," Brock replied.
"I just mentioned that you could retain more information if you occasionally took and organized notes," Amanda replied, rubbing the center of her forehead. "I never critiqued your ability to recall basic information."
"Maybe you could still apologize to him?" The trainer Brock had addressed as Cindy said in a gentle and hesitant voice. She was a girl with dark blue hair and blue gray eyes. She was wearing a turquoise khaki hiking outfit.
"Don't waste your breath," the auburn-haired young man that Brock had addressed as Kayden said. He was wearing dark grey camouflage. "Brock's never going to let that go, not as long as it still bothers Amanda."
"Just like how you wouldn't stop calling me cindyquil until I started ignoring you?" Cindy replied.
"Exactly!"
"I never thought Brock was as big of a jerk as you though…."
"Hey! I wasn't a jerk! I'm your big brother, it's my job to find ways to annoy you!"
"Brock likes to think he's everyone's big brother," Visquez said, arm sweeping out to gesture at the group. "Little does he know that I'm actually three hours older than him."
"Your parents admitted that they might have written the time down wrong," Brock shot back. "Until that gets cleared up, I'm the older one."
"Suuurreee….. keep telling yourself that," Visquez smirked. Cindy covered her mouth and giggled.
"So, Brock is what Misty told us true?" Kayden asked. "Did they really draft you into command?"
"Unfortunately," Brock sighed. "I'm supposed to be meeting with the former command staff to go over some plans."
"Punctuality is important," Amanda nodded. "Don't let us detain you."
"Punctuality is important unless you miss your ride because you were up all night brushing your pokémon's hair?" Brock smirked again.
"That only occurred once!" Amanda yelled. "Now get going!"
"We can catch up later," Cindy said, waving goodbye.
"If you're done before dinner come over to the north fields!" Visquez said as the group began to walk away. "They've got weights! We can spot for each other!"
"I'll try to make it," Brock waved back. "And if not, then save me a seat at mess! And don't let Kayden booby-trap it again!"
"No promises!"
"And this is the mess hall," Leaf said, gesturing to a long, large tent surrounded by plastic tables and chairs. "But the food is really bad. Like worse than a pokémon center."
"But the food at pokémon centers is good," Ash replied, tilting his head.
"Wow, Gary said that you could be weird but I never believed that until now."
"Like Gary can talk about being weird," Ash started to roll his eyes and stopped as he realized who he was talking about. He sighed and looked at the ground.
"I can't believe this is happening either," Leaf said, watching his face. "This is the crazy thing that's just supposed to happen to you Aaron."
"I know!" Ash said.
I really don't like that you two are agreeing on that, Pikachu muttered from Ash's shoulder.
"But this is happening to Gary and all those poor people in the city," Leaf went on. "Saffron's the second most populated city in Kanto on paper, but in reality, it's the largest. It's where all the businesses are. There's going to be a lot of people who only work there stuck in the city. And then there's everyone who's just visiting. Who knows what Team Rocket's going to do to them?"
"How could they do this?" Ash asked, sitting down at one of the plastic tables around the mess hall. "Shouldn't somebody have noticed them moving into the city or something?"
"We don't know how they did it yet," Leaf said, sitting across from him. "I tried to call Professor Oak to see if he knew anything about Gary. I only got one of his assistants, but she said that it sounded like they managed to secretly take down the gym, the police stations, and Silph all at the same time."
"That's scary," Ash replied. "I'm glad they couldn't do something like that to me."
"What's it like? Fighting Team Rocket I mean?" Leaf asked, one elbow on the table, resting the side of her head in her hand.
"I think it's just like all real fights." Ash replied. "It's confusing and scary. There are no rules. Sometimes you can tell what's going on and other times it happens too fast."
"I can imagine," Leaf sighed.
"Sometimes you have to let your pokémon fight on their own," Ash continued. "I know Team Rocket forced us apart when they attacked me last time. It was only 'cause I taught Charmander something that they won."
"You mean when there's too much going on for you to pay attention to all your pokémon's struggles and instead you got to focus on the most important fights?"
"No, I mean I couldn't even see them."
"Oh, they physically separated you," Leaf nodded. "I never thought about it before, but that makes sense as a tactic."
"And then there's the smoke," Ash said. He could almost smell the fires again, like he was back there in the forest. "They tried to burn us without getting close. There was fire everywhere. It was night, so at least it let me see."
Leaf didn't say anything and Ash just looked down at the table.
"And if you're hurt you can't rest. You gotta keep moving or they'll kill you." Ash continued. "No time to use a potion too. You got to just put your pokémon in their balls and hope they'll last."
He could almost hear the sounds of that fight. He remembered seeing Butterfree's savaged form. Squirtle's collection of burns.
"You get so tired. Your pokémon too. But if you quit, they'll kill you." He stared at the table, not really seeing it. There was a noise tickling the edge of his conscious but he didn't process it.
Ash just kept staring at it while the memories of the battle in the forest played through his mind.
"Aaron!" Someone shook his shoulder. Ash looked up and saw Leaf's frightened face staring at him. He realized that the noise had been her calling to him.
"Are you okay?" She asked, crouching down to look him in the eye.
"Yeah, sorry. Just got caught up in the memories," Ash replied, rubbing the back of his head.
"That's not a good thing… Have you seen a therapist recently?" Leaf asked, still looking him in the eye.
"No, I don't need one," Ash shook his head. He had too many secrets, too much to lose, to see a mental health professional.
Maybe you should, Pikachu said and then started nuzzling his leg.
"If you really believe that, then all right," Leaf said, keeping eye contact. "But there's no shame in talking to a professional."
"I- I didn't get lost like that before," Ash replied, looking back down at the table. "I think it's just 'cause we're going to have to fight Team Rocket again soon."
"Yeah, that's not going to be good for anyone's mental health," Leaf sighed, sitting down next to him. "Do you want a hug?"
"Yes," Ash said and then Leaf put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close.
"We'll be fine," Leaf said to him, while Ash leaned into the hug. "We're not going to be in the thick of the fighting. We'll just be helping people evacuate the city."
"But I want to fight," Ash said, staring at his hand on the table, half curled into a fist. "I don't want Team Rocket to hurt more people. I don't want to let them have Gary."
"Please don't," Leaf said, rubbing the side of his shoulder. "Aaron, I know you can, but if you're fighting, who'll help me rescue Gary?"
"Yeah," Ash said, stilling staring at his hand. "Wanna make it a race?"
"To see who can find Gary first?" Leaf raised an eyebrow. "Sure, unless it seems like it's getting in the way of, you know, actually finding him. What's the prize?"
"If you get to him first, you get the first hug from him," Ash said, pulling away to face her. "And if I find him first, I get hugged by him first."
"Winner gets the first hug?" Leaf smiled. "Sure! I'll take the first hug. You can have the sloppy seconds."
"It's on then," Ash said. "Just you wait! I'm going to save Gary so fast you won't even see me."
"I hope so," Leaf said, letting him go. "Come on, let's go see if we can eat yet."
"We don't have the time!" A brown-haired woman in a League uniform shouted. "If we let Team Rocket fortify the city then it will take oceans of blood to reclaim it!"
"And if we just throw the irregular elements at the city then we'll end up with oceans of blood on our hands anyway!" A gray-haired man shouted back. "We need time to form them into units, otherwise we'll just have to use them as a mob."
Brock groaned and rubbed his head while the officers argued. Another woman with glasses and her brown hair kept in a short ponytail, one Tory Nasuma as Brock had learned, shot him a sympathetic look, but kept quiet.
It was late into the night and the officers had been arguing since before supper. They had started arguing about the probable state of Saffron City and the disbursement of Team Rocket's forces. Next came predictions about Team Rocket's goals, how exactly Team Rocket had managed the takeover, what was happening to the civilian population, and finally they had started discussing plans to finally retake the city.
Brock had settled into the role of manager instead of commander, trying to keep the meeting flowing and in order. He had rarely needed to make a decision and had been leaning on Tory whenever he could.
"Be straight with me," Brock had said during one brief recess. "Did you put me in charge just to cover your asses?"
"I won't deny that was part of our motivation," Tory had said without evening blinking. "No one on hand wants to be responsible for this situation so we're sticking to the book as closely as we can. None of us are really trained for this situation. You're the only one who clearly outranks everyone else."
"How is that even possible?"
"The Elites are occupied, other League detachments are handling the situation in Johto to cover the gap left when they lost most of their Elite organization or entangled in tasks on every border, and every gym leader-" Tory said.
"Is currently securing their own city before they even think of assisting here." Brock finished for her, groaning and sitting back in his seat. "They really caught us with our pants down."
"Agreed," Tory nodded. "To make the situation even more untenable, most of us officers are from different organizations. The Legislative Assembly just rallied every force that they could get their hands on without a care for establishing a chain of command."
"Because that's the job of the Elites or whichever gym leader has jurisdiction," Brock sighed. "And with Sabrina being incommunicado that means there's no one to take charge. Thus, you grabbed the highest-ranking gym personnel you could-"
"That person being you-"
"To deal with this shit," Brock continued. "Is that why you suggested recording the meeting? So that nobody can try to shift the blame on me?"
"Partially, sir," Tory nodded. "But also, it's so that I can review it later at my leisure."
"Hoping to see something we missed the first time 'round?"
"Exactly, sir," Tory nodded again and pushed her glasses up.
"Great. What was your job again?" Brock asked, running his hand through his hair.
"I was head of the Saffron-Fuchsia Inland Counter Smuggling Unit," Tory answered. "My job was primarily analysis and operations planning."
"Can I just put you in charge?"
"No," Tory replied without hesitation. "I have no idea how to command heavy assets like yourself and your adorable onix. I don't know your limits."
"But you've got to have at least as much experience as me in coordinating different organizations," Brock retorted.
"But no experience or training for heavy operations," Tory countered. "There's only one officer here who does and Ryan of the Central Kanto Defense Garrison is used to operating under the command of whoever's tapped his unit for support."
"By Groudon, that's just super," Brock threw up his hands. "So, we've got a region-wide emergency on our hands and I'm the closest to being qualified to handle it. Me. This is going to end in tragedy."
"I'm not a psychic or a chosen priestess of Celebi," Tory said. "And I doubt you are either. None of us know how this is going to end until it does. Please keep your self-loathing out of the way until then."
After that Brock had taken to managing the meeting with a new energy and saw the bickering in a new light. The officers were just as out of their depth as he was, for all the years of experience most of them had on him.
Back in the present the brown-haired woman who had been suggesting that they attack right away turned to him.
"Sir," she said. "What is your opinion on this topic?"
Brock was silent for a moment and then leaned forward, curling his hands together and putting them up to his lips.
"I think… I think you're both arguing about the wrong thing," Brock said. "Whether we attack sooner or later, we won't be able to retake the city with what we've got here."
"So, we should just give up?" The brown-haired woman slammed her hand down on the table.
"No, we should focus on a different goal," Brock replied. "We need to evacuate as many people as we can from occupied territory, not retake the entire city." He rested his hands on the table.
"Here's my idea," Brock continued. "The regular forces go in and establish a bridgehead on the outskirts of the city. We make pushes towards all the transit hubs and important intersections that we can. Meanwhile, we use the irregulars to shepherd the population out of the city and guard our rear. Once things start looking bad, we pull back to the bridgehead."
"We can use one airship as a mobile command post," Brock went on, "and we use the other to transport critical medical cases to Fuchsia, guarded by the minor irregulars, and then to ferry back supplies for the rest of the refugees. We can offer to leave the minor irregulars to help guard Fuschia and see if that will convince Aya or Koga to send us some gym trainers. We'll then have a skeleton crew of regular forces to manage the camp and let the irregulars handle the rest. The camp will be of little strategic value, so Team Rocket shouldn't attack them and then we can hold the bridgehead until reinforcements arrive."
The officers looked at each other and Brock wondered if he had betrayed some critical lack of experience with his plan.
"I…. don't see anything wrong with that plan," the gray-haired man said eventually.
"Neither do I," the brown-haired woman agreed.
"I do," Tory spoke up. "You're assuming that Team Rocket's will not attack the refugees due to a lack of strategic value on their part, but what if the population of Saffron City was their entire goal? You'd be throwing the irregulars on Giratina's mercy if that was the case."
"I'm hoping we could harass them from the bridgehead if they attempted to go around us," Brock said. "But if we can discover what Team Rocket's goal is and if their goal is the population of the city, then we can withdraw our regulars as well."
"I have another objection," a large scarred black-haired woman with a white streak in her hair said. "Why are we specifically sending the minor irregulars instead of ranking all the irregulars by badges and estimated team strength?"
"Because we're not sending children into battle," Brock said simply.
"Why not? These days you can't even get your trainer's license until you're twelve," the scarred woman said. "That's old enough to fight. Hell, my first real battle happened when I was eight. What's more important is their capability on the battlefield and if we send away the minor irregulars, we might be sending away some of our more talented fighters -"
"No," Brock said firmly, his voice almost a growl. "I don't care what it was like in the past, we're not sending children into battle. And we don't have enough time to properly integrate the irregulars into other units so they can fight. And that's my final word on both subjects, understood?"
"Yessir," the woman said, eyes hard and almost growling herself.
"Good," Brock said. "Does anyone have any other objections?"
"What about individuals who can't evacuate under their own power?" Another officer asked. "The sick, the infirm, and the trapped?"
"We've got SAR for that," Brock pointed out. "Both the regulars and the irregulars who have suitable teams. We can use the irregulars to sweep through territory we have a firm hold on and use the regulars in SAR to extract targets from high-risk situations."
"We might be able to evacuate a significant portion of Saffron population this way," Tory said, frowning, her forehead wrinkled and brows furrowed. "When do you think we can implement this plan?"
"You were right," Brock said, looking at the brown-haired woman. "We can't afford to wait. We'll have to try this the day after tomorrow."
"That soon?" Tory raised an eyebrow.
"We can hammer out the details of the plan tonight, pass along everyone's orders and get some very, very, basic training in tomorrow, and then we move out the next morning," Brock explained. "So, if anyone's got any critiques or improvements, now's the time to speak up. We've got aaaalllll night…"
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading
So, I had originally written a long, rambling, and pretentious author's note (complete with warnings about it being long, rambling, and pretentious). After reading it back to myself, getting a second opinion, and thinking on it for a few minutes, I said to myself "ConstructiveWriter, talking about this stuff in your author's note means that you don't think that these ideas can stand on their own in the story."
To which I replied, "Damn skippy, I know that they can't! That's why I'm talking about them here!"
Of course since I'm a contrarian, I had to keep arguing and eventually decided to scrap the original note. I will just say a few things: a) I'm not trying to deconstruct anything, just give things weight. b) these ideas were inspired by a mix of elements from the manga and games, and rely heavily on my own viewpoint on these elements, so if you can't tell where some of this is coming from, it's from my own stupidit- I mean unique viewpoint. C) I wont' do any preaching.
Hopefully that's enough.
Anyway, see you next Wednesday. Don't forget to review! Concrit is welcome!